Director Update

Dear friends,

This year is Toxics Action Center’s 30th anniversary. More than thirty years ago, the mothers of Woburn, Massachusetts took action to protect the health of their children when the chemical company W.R. Grace contaminated their drinking water. The Woburn leukemia cluster eventually claimed the lives of 14 children. In response, in 1987 a group of public health and environmental advocates created an organization to help residents who faced their own Woburn situations. Toxics Action Center — known then as the Massachusetts Campaign to Clean Up Hazardous Waste — began organizing with communities to clean up contamination from New England’s industrial past. Our efforts won increased enforcement, cleanup and public participation within Massachusetts’ Superfund program.

Since those early days, Toxics Action Center expanded into every New England state, has organized with more than 850 neighborhood groups, and directly trained more than 20,000 frontline activists in the skills needed to address local environmental threats.

Fortunately, the days of widespread chemical dumping in New England are mostly over, but the environmental threats we face today are no less pressing. Our community organizers continue to receive calls every week from residents whose water is unsafe to drink, parents concerned that their children are being exposed to lead in school, farmers concerned about pipelines bringing fracked gas through their apple orchard, or first-time activists wanting to take action for a healthier, more just, and more sustainable world.

Thank you for your support, now and in the future, as we continue our work to organize with communities and grow the grassroots environmental movement.